…ARCON Considering Legal Actions Against Osamede, ADVAN Says Source
The Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON) has strongly refuted claims made in a January 23rd Punch Newspaper story with the headline “Advertisers protest ARCON’s N3m advert vetting fee,” that it has raised its advertising vetting fee to N3 million.
Reacting to the published story which had the President of the Advertisers Association of Nigeria, Mr Mr. Osamede Uwubanmwen quoted throughout, ARCON asserted that “The publication is false, malicious and a misrepresentation of the vetting fee process.” The statement, signed by Head of Corporate Affairs Winifred Akpan, reiterated that the actual vetting fee remains N35,000.
“This is one of the many interviews of the President of Advertisers Association of Nigeria [ADVAN) Mr. Osamede Uwubanmwen in which he misrepresented the fact, misinformed the public and maliciously maligned the reputation of ARCON as an insensitive and anti-industry development agency.
“Vetting fee is N35,000 and not N3million as headlined and published in the Punch Newspaper,” the statement read.
ARCON clarified that the N3 million figure refers not to a vetting fee but rather a “deterrent fee” levied on organizations producing advertisements outside of Nigeria. As the statement explained:
“There is a deterrent fee of N3million for organizations that produce their advertisements outside Nigeria. This is not a vetting fee, it is part of ARCON’s efforts aimed at encouraging the use of local talents and production of advertisement in Nigeria as part of our industry development and growth programme.”
The regulatory body emphasized that no such deterrent fee applies to ads produced locally within Nigeria. It encouraged “organizations to embrace the use of local talents and production of all advertisement, advertising and marketing communication directed or targeted at the Nigerian market in Nigeria.
Lending voice to the discourse sparked by the story on Punch, via his LinkedIn handle, former ADVAN President and current President of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Dr Idorenyen Enang wrote, “…whoever started the pinch headline of the ‘N3m vetting fee’ may inadvertently have set out with disinformation. I also suspect that it was intentional just to create unnecessary schisms.
“To the best of my knowledge, the ARCON vetting fee is N35,000. The charges associated depend on timing utilising a fast track or normal process. If there is any fee in the N3m range as hinted, it will be a deterrent ‘fee’ and not a vetting fee per se. A deterrent fee is meant to curb an incessant behaviour where advertisers tend to produce commercials outside of our clime; this is meant to aid the internal ecosystem and industry to grow. This is what I believe the N3m fine
seeks to do,” he clarified.
Following what she described as repeated attempts by the ADVAN President at misleading the public, a source close to Brand Communicator at the ARCON secretariat has revealed that the ARCON council is considering taking legal actions against Mr. Osamede as an individual and against ADVAN as corporate body. She revealed that the council had no choice but to consider that alternative as “the ADVAN President has shown that he will not relent in his campaign of calumny against ARCON”, she revealed.
The source further questioned Uwubanmwen’s motives and credentials in the advertising industry: “In the last five years, Mr Osamede has done no real marketing activities or carried out any campaign, neither has he done any form of commercial. Clearly, besides his position at ADVAN, he is not even a stakeholder in this. Why is he bent on throwing the industry into chaos?” she queried.
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